1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a child resistant gas lighter in which fuel gas is discharged and ignited in response to manual depression of of an actuator or pressing member interuptably operatively connected to release fuel gas for ignition when the lighter is armed and is operatively disconnected when the lighter is disarmed to prevent the release of the fuel gas when the actuator is accidentally pressed or pressed intentionally by a child who is unable to determine the arming sequence. The invention is particularly difficult for an adult, in an attempt to make the lighter easier to use, to permanently disable the child resistant nature of the lighter without destroying the lighter's ability to produce a flame.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical child resistant lighters, where release of fuel gas is interrupted, are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,324,193 and 5,431,558. U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,193 discloses a fuel gas actuator lever with a sliding pivot. To release gas, the user must first slide the lever toward the nozzle to remove the abutment between a tab, which extends downwardly from operator side of the lever, and an abutment surface. Adults can permanently disable the child resistant feature either by breaking the tab off the lever or by filing a suitable slope on the abutment surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,558 is similar requiring an inward sliding motion of the fuel gas actuator lever to move blocking surfaces out of alignment so that the lever can be depressed. An adult can permanently disable the child resistant feature, but because the blocking surfaces are toward the interior of the lighter, a more careful filing job must be accomplished to defeat the child resistancy feature than is required for the lighter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,193.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,482 discloses a gas lighter comprising a fuel-supplying device for supplying fuel gas to a nozzle on the top of a lighter main body for storing the fuel gas, an action lever for opening and closing the fuel-supplying device by moving the nozzle up and down, a pressing member which is depressed to operate a piezoelectric unit, and an elastic piece which is disposed on the top of the lighter main body, the elastic piece being normally held in a position where it interferes with the pressing member to prevent depression thereof and being deformed to permit depression of the pressing member in response to movement of a slide member. Removal of the elastic piece defeats the child resistancy of the lighter.
For the lighters described above, however, it is difficult to switch from a locked position, where a flame cannot be created, to an unlocked position, where a flame can be created. In other words, the use of the lighters is not convenient. In addition, the structure of the lighters is relatively complicated. When the locking device used to block the pressing device for supplying the fuel gas does not operate very well for some reason, the pressing device can still be pressed downward to spray the fuel gas by accident. In addition, users of lighters can break the locking device of the lighter for convenience to defeat the child resistant properties of the lighter. In fact adult users of lighters including U.S. Government mandated child resistancy features even go so far as to use the operating aid of U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,439, to make the lighters easier to use by defeating the child resistancy features.